Freedom to travel in the UK?

Nanny Knows Best relates the story of 'Tom Shaw, a musician with the band the Magic Mushrooms, who had the misfortune to be travelling by South West Trains the other day.' Apparently:

'Mr Shaw was writing a list of song titles which his band would play at a forthcoming gig. Included in the list was a band name The Killers and song titles Take Me Out and Cigarettes and Alcohol.

Oooh!!

Can you guess what happened next loyal readers?

Yes, that's right, two members of the train company's security staff approached Mr Shaw and asked him to leave the train at Fareham railway station. In the eyes of "security" Mr Shaw had been behaving "suspiciously".

Once out of the train, Mr Shaw was asked to show them the piece of paper that he had been writing on.

The "security" staff then made Mr Shaw explain song by song what the list was about.

It seems that there was something of a security flap on at the time, thus "justifying" the approach by "security", a number of arrests had been made in the area including a man who had murdered his wife.

A South West Trains spokeswoman gave this remarkably unsettling and worrying quote to MSN:

"We employ a team of highly professional rail community officers who work closely with the British Transport Police in protecting the security of passengers on the rail network. During a routine high-visibility patrol back in early March, they talked with a passenger on the platform at Fareham station.

The team clarified the nature of the individual's business, were satisfied with his explanation and the man went on his way.

We would like to thank the passenger for his co-operation and understanding of the need to be vigilant in the current environment."

"to be vigilant in the current environment"!!

What the hell is going on in these people's minds?

Is this to be the excuse used by jobsworths and train companies etc for every infringement of our personal freedoms?'

That's what 13 years of Labour authoritarian rule have lead to and I hate it.